Northern Lights

As part of our minibeast topic this half term, we have been looking at butterflies and learning about pattern and symmetry.

During topic, the children cut out a butterfly and painted a design onto one wing. They then folded up their butterfly before opening them out again to reveal a beautiful, symmetrical pattern.

The children were amazed at how the paint imprinted on the other side and the different colours mixed together to create new patterns and designs.

Charlie was particularly impressed with his butterfly, telling Mrs Joyce excitedly that "It looks just like the northern lights".

"Art takes nature as its model" - Aristotle

A Solid Foundation

We are now in our second week of the new term and as ever, it is proving to be a busy one. The children have been settling back into the daily routines and joining in with lots of fun activities.

In our garden we saw a brilliant display of team work and problem solving from some of our Nursery children. After realising the house they had built was too small for everyone to comfortably fit in, the children thought carefully about how they could resolve the issue and worked together to reconstruct a bigger house.

 

These kind of problem solving activities are vital in helping children to develop their creative and critical thinking skills. Children who are able to problem solve in a variety of situations are often more confident and able to cope with new or different routines and situations. This can have a massive impact not only on learning in school, but is a life skill that can be carried forwards into the future. As we near the transition phase of our school year, finding ways to develop these skills is particularly relevant.

"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve" - Roger Lewin

Red Nose Day 2017

This year at the Grove Academy Red Nose Day was BIG news!!

Our head boy and girl, along with their deputies planned a whole host of fun activities for the children.

The day started with an assembly, which saw the staff in Early Years and KS1 go head to head with each other in a race to see who was the best 'Mummy' in honour of the new red nose.

 

KS2 teachers were then faced with a series of challenges set up by our head boys and girls, including a doughnut eating competition and a very tricky tennis skills battle.

All the children (and staff) had a great time and lots of fun.


However, it is important to remember why we have this event and we took time to share the reason behind Red Nose Day with the children.


Thanks to the generosity of the children and parents in our school we were able to raise £453.85.If you would like to find out where the money raised goes to, please follow the link. http://www.rednoseday.com/


"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" - Aesop

Observational Drawing

Now that Spring is finally upon us, we are taking every opportunity to make the most of the (occasional) good weather and take learning outside whenever we can.


During our topic lessons last week we decided to take the children out into the sunshine to complete observational drawings of cars parked in our car park. The children were taught how to use pastels and were able to use this particular medium to create some truly stunning representations.

Through this task the children are of course developing the skills that come with working with pastels, but when children are faced with the challenge of representing a real life 3D object on paper they are practicing their recognition of shapes and awareness of proportion as well as advancing hand eye coordination and an eye for detail.

It was amazing to see the children so engaged in their task and how proud they all were of their finished artwork.


"Every child is an artist" - Picasso

The Train Trip

As part of our 'Transport' topic, the children of Reception wanted to see what we could find out about trains.


The children and staff made the trip to Garston train station and were able to have a look at the signs, tracks and platform.

We spotted some wires over the top of the tracks and Jamie told me that "It's for electricity".


As we were having a look around the station we were lucky enough to see a train pass through, stopping to pick up and drop off passengers on it's journey.

The children behaved beautifully, listening carefully to all of the grown ups instructions and following all of the safety rules.

Short trips like this, where we venture outside of the classroom, allow the children to experience things on a more personal level and really help to bring learning to life.


"Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge" - Mahatma Ghandi

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice!

Last week the children in Reception worked hard to bake lots of delicious biscuits in honour of World Book Day.
We sold the biscuits and thanks to the generosity of our fantastic Reception parents we managed to raise £41 to spend on new books for our book corners.


The recipe that we used is quick and simple (and tasty!), so if you enjoyed the biscuits then why not make some at home over the long weekend!

Recipe for Animal Biscuits

Ingredients:

175g 6oz butter, softened

75g 2half oz caster sugar

175g 6oz plain flour

75g 2half oz semolina

 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180'C/350'F
2. Add butter and sugar to mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until soft and creamy.
3. Then stir in flour and semolina.
4. Dust lightly with flour before kneading, roll out (£1 coin thick) and use animal cutters to make biscuits.
5. Bake for approx. 10 mins – keep your eye on them.

Let us know how you get on and if you bake a few too many, teachers never say no to a biscuit or two!!

Once again, thank you for the generous donations to our biscuit making venture and allowing us to provide even more resources for the children! 

Remarkable Writing

Amelia in RG has been very busy drawing her own story mountain.

She recreated the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' in picture form and was then able to use this to help her write out the story. She used her phonics to sound out some really tricky words and ended up with a truly fantastic piece of work.

“You can make anything by writing.” – C.S. Lewis

World Book Day

Last week saw children and adults alike celebrating World Book Day.

There were fabulous costumes and exciting activities which created a real buzz around the school.

    

Throughout the day the children had opportunities to share books and stories and discuss their favourite characters. At the end of the day each of the children received a £1 World Book Day token, which can be exchanged for one of 10 special World Book Day books, which have been specially written for this event.

Celebrating this love of books and reading is so important for children of any age, but if we can embed this passion in their early years it really can last a life time.

Don't forget to use your token by Sunday 26th March and visit http://www.worldbookday.com/ for more information.

Finally, a big thanks goes to Mrs Ayrton for organising another fantastic World Book Day at the Grove Academy!

  

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." - Dr Seuss



The Squeaky Story

As our Primary Writing Project continues, the children in Reception have been busy learning 'The Squeaky Story'. The use of story mountains provide children with a visual representation of the story that they are all able to follow and actions help to embed the pattern of the story.


Exposing children to as many different stories as possible, as well as repeating favourite stories, will support children on their journey to becoming independent readers and writers.


Have a go at sharing 'The Squeaky Story' with your child tonight and see how many actions you can pick up on!!

The Squeaky Story

Once upon a time there was a little girl and a little boy who went to stay with their Grandma.
Just before bed, Grandma said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, and closed the door……


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’


So, Grandma said, what you need is a cat….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door……
and the cat said, ‘meoooow!’ 


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’


So, Grandma said, ‘What you need is a dog….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door…… the cat said, ‘meoooow!’
and the dog said, ‘Grrrrrrr!’


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’


So, Grandma said, what you need is a sheep….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door…… the cat said, ‘meoooow!’
and the dog said, ‘Grrrrrrr!’
and the sheep said, ‘Baaaaa!’


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’


So, Grandma said, what you need is a cow….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door…… the cat said, ‘meoooow!’
and the dog said, ‘Grrrrrrr!’
and the sheep said, ‘Baaaaa!’
and the cow said, ‘Mooooo!’


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!


So, Grandma said, what you need is a horse….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door…… the cat said, ‘meoooow!
and the dog said, ‘Grrrrrrr!’
and the sheep said, ‘Baaaaa!’

and the cow said, ‘Mooooo!’
and the horse said, ‘Neighhh!’


but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’


So, Grandma said, what you need is a pig….’.
So, she said, ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door…… the cat said, ‘meoooow!’
and the dog said, ‘Grrrrrrr!’
and the sheep said, ‘Baaaaa!’
and the cow said, ‘Mooooo!’
and the horse said, ‘Neighhh!’
and the pig said, ‘Oinkkk!’ 

but the children said, ‘It’s too noisy!’

So, Grandma said, ‘OK’ - and she - Took away the cat - meow!
The dog - grrrr!
The sheep - baa!
The cow - moo!
The horse - neigh!
And the pig - oink!

Then she said ‘Goodnight’, gave them a kiss, turned out the light, closed the door……

and the children fell fast asleep.
Shhhhhhhh!

The end.

Mud Pies

This week the nursery children have spent some time exploring the mud kitchen during CIL and created some amazing mud pies.

Outdoor play (especially messy outdoor play!!) is a fantastic way for children to explore different areas of the curriculum. In this photo we can see three children working on their communication and cooperation skills as they share resources and work out what they are making, developing their physical skills as they mix and stir and handle tools and growing their vocabulary through experimenting with different textures and materials.


For children, play is key in developing skills that they can use as they learn throughout their school and adult lives.




For children, play is learning.


"Play is the highest form of research" - Albert Einstein

Take a Walk Little Bear

Across the school, the children have been hard at work learning lots of different stories as we put our Primary Writing Project into practise.


In Reception, we have been leaning the story of a little bear who followed a bee in search of some tasty honey. The children have been using pictures in the form of a 'story mountain' as well as actions to help them remember how the story goes so that they are able to tell it to their friends and teachers.

 

Jessica's Little Bear 'story mountain'

Some children even had a go at turning their favourite stories from home into a story mountain!

 

Hungry Caterpillar 'story mountain' by Bradley

Learning and retelling familiar and much loved stories is such an important part of learning to read and write for children and using pictures to represent a well known story in this way gives children the opportunity to practise their writing and reading skills, even before they know how to read and write!!


To make the story come to life even more, the children discovered exactly what the little bear was hunting for by tasting honey and discussing why they thought he was so keen to find some.

If you would like to find out more about the Primary Writing Project then please talk to your child's class teacher or follow the link for more information... Primary Writing Project

The universe is made of stories, not atoms - Muriel Rukeyser

Internet Safety

As part of our space topic this half term, the children have been researching  rockets and what makes them fly. In order to find out this information we logged on to the internet and the children suggested the well know search engine 'Google' as a good place to start our research.


This raised an excellent opportunity for discussing internet safety and how to stay safe online. Nearly all the children in Reception are lucky enough to be able to access the internet on a wide range of devices and will regularly search for favourite games and websites. Unfortunately, this freedom to explore the online world leaves children open to discovering inappropriate or upsetting content and people, however innocent the search may have been.


In our classes we discussed how sometimes there may be things on the internet that are just for grown ups and suggested ways that we could make sure we stay safe online, just like we do in the real world. The children were very sensible, making suggestions such as asking a grown up to help them and keep them safe.


We then introduced a search engine specifically designed for children and explained that each time we log on to the internet, we should head straight to 'Kidrex' as this lets us search for things in exactly the same way as 'Google' but in a much safer way.


If you would like to find out more information about keeping your children safe online, then please talk to your child's class teacher or follow the links below. 


https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/


http://www.childnet.com/


https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/


http://hectorsworld.netsafe.org.nz/teachers/hectors-world-safety-button/

Space Adventures

Our half term space topic began with a bang (or should that be crash...), with an alien landing in our classrooms.

The children were keen to find out more about our visitors from space and thought of a range of questions they could ask. Some children even had a go at writing their questions down, using their phonic skills to sound out each word.

Inspired by their new alien friend, the children have been busy with lots of other space themed activities including rocket making and addition space games.

The Early Years staff work hard to find lots of different ways to engage the children and capture their imagination.

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” ― Albert Einstein